Chris Whiteside is the Conservative County Councillor for the Egremont North and St Bees Division of Cumbria County Council. The division includes St Bees, most of Moor Row, Bigrigg, Wood End, part of the Mirehouse area of Whitehaven, and the surrounding countryside.
Chris lives and works in Copeland with his wife and family.
Chris is a former member of Copeland Borough council, and an Honorary Alderman of the City and District of St Albans.

Monday, January 30, 2017

One Lib/Dem who gets it

Many Lib/Dems have been in "stop the world, I want to get off" mode since 23rd June last year.

One of the few who recognises that the "Remain" side lost the vote and we have to move on is Ben Andrew who has written an article on a Lib/Dem site here urging his fellow party members to stop peddling "Remainer myths and post-truth politics."

Here are some extracts:

He points out that the idea that another referendum today would produce a remain vote "is a fantasy."

"Pollafterpoll afterpoll has shown that Regrexit doesn’t exist – that no more Leavers than Remainers have changed their mind in the aftermath of the referendum.""And even if Regrexit does exist in a few polls – is it even relevant? Do we reverse election results if people regret them a few months down the line? Would we accept the same argument if Remain had won, and people wished they had voted for leave? Of course not. These arguments are ridiculous."

"And it doesn’t stop there. There are those who argue that we should remain in the EU because enoughLeave voters have diedsince June 23rd to tip public opinion our way (a line of logic which never has, and hopefully never will be used to overturn the result of an election)."

"And then there’s the misleading articles likethiswhich attempt to align those who didn’t vote with those who voted Remain (when they should obviously be considered neutral, as they chose not to cast a vote)"
."Why can’t we just face the truth? Yes the referendum was close, but despite the avalanche of politicians and business people and foreign leaders telling us to vote Remain, the British people voted to leave, and they don’t seem to regret it."

"We certainly aren’t the only people who are guilty of this kind of wilful denial. We regularly laugh at Momentum activists who claim that Corbyn’s on track for victory; UKIP voters who think that reducing migration will save the NHS; and Trump supporters who believe that globalisation can be reversed with the click of his fingers."

"But they’re laughing at us too. Because so many of us are making unsubtantiated claims about the public opinion on Brexit, which circulate around our echo chamber to make us feel better, but carry no factual weight whatsoever. Post-truth politics is one of the most dangerous trends in our democracy right now. We should be fighting against it, not joining in."

Nice to know there does appear to be at least one Lib/Dem with a working brain. Hope his party leader reads the article.